Boris
04-27-2004, 05:41 PM
Wal-Mart is a giant funnel for Chinese made goods into the US. When you support Wal-mart, you support communism.
From today's WSJ.
Ch---y in China
By MAOCHUN YU
April 27, 2004; Page A18
Today's China is a study in contradiction. Despite economic progress it continues to live in political darkness. One manifestation of China's repressive politics is its stubborn insistence on total control over the press. It took Washington the entire 1980s just to convince the Chinese leadership that the U.S. president didn't have the power to fire the Beijing bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal for reporting on China's negative points.
For all its economic liberalization, China's attitude toward free speech hasn't changed at all. Twenty-five years after dumping communist economics, China is still one of the worst offenders of press freedom, clapping more journalists in prison annually than any other country in the world. In its 2002 report on global press freedom, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranked China 138th out of 139 countries, with North Korea at the bottom.
* * *
Last week, Vice President Dick Cheney delivered an important speech at Shanghai's Fudan University, after extracting solemn agreements from China's leaders that the speech would be broadcast live, directly, and without censorship to the Chinese people. In fact Mr. Cheney's speech was aired, unannounced, to a limited Chinese audience with no primetime repeats. Immediately after the speech, Chinese officials disseminated an official "full text" transcript to the People's Daily and the official news agency Xinhua, both Party mouthpieces. In it, the vice president's words were censored and twisted so much that it ought to win the Orwell Prize for bowdlerization.
What the Chinese censored in Mr. Cheney's speech is remarkably revealing. Just line the English transcript, provided by the White House, and the translated Chinese "full text" transcript up, side by side -- and judge for yourself.
• On individual liberty and political democracy. In his speech, Vice President Cheney spoke passionately about the importance of individual freedom and the virtues of political democracy. "While democratic processes are sometimes untidy and unpredictable -- as any close observer of American politics can attest -- they permit the peaceful expression of diverse views, protect the rights of the individual, check the ability of the state to abuse its power, and encourage the kind of debate and compromise that leads to lasting stability." The vice president also said, "the desire for freedom is universal; it is not unique to one country, or culture, or region." All deleted by the Chinese censors.
When cutting the guts out doesn't go far enough, creative cutting and pasting do the trick. "Across Asia, rising prosperity and EXPANDING POLITICAL FREEDOM have gone hand in hand," said the vice president, and "Great nations in this region have entered the 21st century as independent peoples, growing in prosperity and INDIVIDUAL freedom." In the Chinese version, the words in capital letters were deleted, to make the entire sentences mean something totally different. "Individual freedom" becomes "freedom of great nations of Asia" from colonialism and dynasty; and "expanding political freedom" has nothing to do with progress in Asia. Only "prosperity" matters.
• On Taiwan. The hallmark of the Bush-Cheney administration's policy toward the hot-button issue of Taiwan is its dual emphasis on the so-called Three Communiques and the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which obligate the U.S. to maintain Taiwan's defense capability against a Chinese attack. Mr. Cheney, time and again in his speech, emphatically linked them together as the official policy of the U.S. Yet all mentions of the Taiwan Relations Act are struck, fundamentally misrepresenting the vice president's statement of U.S. policy.
The Taiwan issue has been marked by ultra-sensitive semantics. On Taiwan independence, official U.S. policy is "no support" for Taiwan independence, which was in the English transcript. Yet "no support" becomes the semantically inconsequential but politically hugely important word "oppose" in the Chinese text. This constitutes yet another distortion.
• On the North Korean nuclear crisis. Mr. Cheney's remarks on North Korea, China's long-time ally and "Comrade plus Brother of lips-and-teeth closeness," got left on the cutting room floor. Passage after passage on North Korea in the vice president's speech are mercilessly cut, including the phrases "rogue states" and "past history of irresponsibility and deceit." Gone also are the long passages on the dangers of a nuclear arms race in Asia triggered by North Korea, and of nuclear proliferation to countries such as Pakistan and Libya.
On U.S. strategic goals in the Middle East. The vice president spent considerable time explaining to his Chinese audience the importance of building a democratic Iraq as a spearhead for peace and stability in the Middle East. He also welcomed China's participation in the war against terrorism. The most brilliant part of Mr. Cheney's speech is when he compares the prospect of a democratic Middle East with that of the Asia Pacific region. "We hear it said by skeptics," Mr. Cheney said, "that the greater Middle East is a hopeless cause for democratic values -- that they are doomed to live in misery and oppression. Those of you who have studied history will find that this dismissive attitude has a familiar ring. Not so long ago, the very same things were said about the people of Asia. Yet today the world looks to Asia as a showcase of the possibilities of human enterprise and creativity. Across this region we see entire nations raising themselves up from poverty in the space of little more than a generation, building strong, modern economies, and becoming stable, peaceful, and open societies of free peoples, governed under laws set by representatives chosen in free elections."
This passage is deleted entirely from the Chinese "full text" transcript.
• On partnership with the United States. China is praised for having taken an active role in the U.S.-led global fight against terror. Yet China is also using the war against terror as a pretext to oppress its own people, such as its Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet regions. Vice President Cheney sternly warned the Chinese in his speech, "As we deepen our cooperation, however, we must also be mindful of the rights of the innocent. The war on terror must never be used as an excuse for silencing legitimate dissent and expression of opinion." This passage disappears in the Chinese "full text" transcript.
* * *
For decades, the Chinese government has used its control of all media outlets to fan hysteria against the "hegemon," a nickname for the U.S. in Chinese politics. So much so that now the leadership fears being viewed by its own people as a corrupt collaborator with the evil hegemon with whom they continue to engage and trade. Thus the statement, "We (Beijing and Washington) are working together on these vital (economic) issues," has been cut. That way, Chinese officialdom maintains its pose of tough and principled "proletarian" warrior standing against the demonic capitalist hegemon and the unspeakable ulterior motives of its bourgeois ruling class.
Thus, most of Vice President Cheney's key statements about the most important issues of U.S.-China relations -- freedom and democracy, Taiwan, the North Korean nuclear crisis, war and peace in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and security and economic cooperation between the two countries -- were censored or changed in the official "full text" Chinese translation.
Censorship has always been a vital part of Chinese government policy. The survival of the Communist regime requires belief in the Party's infallibility. Pointing out anything negative about reality in China is viewed as a threat to the power of the Communist Party, a power that must be ruthlessly maintained by total control of the media. The Chinese treatment of this speech is no aberration. Sadly, censorship in China, a country so full of hope and promise, yet so ripe with misery and misfortune, remains as solid as the Great Wall.
Mr. Yu is associate professor of East Asia and Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy.
From today's WSJ.
Ch---y in China
By MAOCHUN YU
April 27, 2004; Page A18
Today's China is a study in contradiction. Despite economic progress it continues to live in political darkness. One manifestation of China's repressive politics is its stubborn insistence on total control over the press. It took Washington the entire 1980s just to convince the Chinese leadership that the U.S. president didn't have the power to fire the Beijing bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal for reporting on China's negative points.
For all its economic liberalization, China's attitude toward free speech hasn't changed at all. Twenty-five years after dumping communist economics, China is still one of the worst offenders of press freedom, clapping more journalists in prison annually than any other country in the world. In its 2002 report on global press freedom, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranked China 138th out of 139 countries, with North Korea at the bottom.
* * *
Last week, Vice President Dick Cheney delivered an important speech at Shanghai's Fudan University, after extracting solemn agreements from China's leaders that the speech would be broadcast live, directly, and without censorship to the Chinese people. In fact Mr. Cheney's speech was aired, unannounced, to a limited Chinese audience with no primetime repeats. Immediately after the speech, Chinese officials disseminated an official "full text" transcript to the People's Daily and the official news agency Xinhua, both Party mouthpieces. In it, the vice president's words were censored and twisted so much that it ought to win the Orwell Prize for bowdlerization.
What the Chinese censored in Mr. Cheney's speech is remarkably revealing. Just line the English transcript, provided by the White House, and the translated Chinese "full text" transcript up, side by side -- and judge for yourself.
• On individual liberty and political democracy. In his speech, Vice President Cheney spoke passionately about the importance of individual freedom and the virtues of political democracy. "While democratic processes are sometimes untidy and unpredictable -- as any close observer of American politics can attest -- they permit the peaceful expression of diverse views, protect the rights of the individual, check the ability of the state to abuse its power, and encourage the kind of debate and compromise that leads to lasting stability." The vice president also said, "the desire for freedom is universal; it is not unique to one country, or culture, or region." All deleted by the Chinese censors.
When cutting the guts out doesn't go far enough, creative cutting and pasting do the trick. "Across Asia, rising prosperity and EXPANDING POLITICAL FREEDOM have gone hand in hand," said the vice president, and "Great nations in this region have entered the 21st century as independent peoples, growing in prosperity and INDIVIDUAL freedom." In the Chinese version, the words in capital letters were deleted, to make the entire sentences mean something totally different. "Individual freedom" becomes "freedom of great nations of Asia" from colonialism and dynasty; and "expanding political freedom" has nothing to do with progress in Asia. Only "prosperity" matters.
• On Taiwan. The hallmark of the Bush-Cheney administration's policy toward the hot-button issue of Taiwan is its dual emphasis on the so-called Three Communiques and the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which obligate the U.S. to maintain Taiwan's defense capability against a Chinese attack. Mr. Cheney, time and again in his speech, emphatically linked them together as the official policy of the U.S. Yet all mentions of the Taiwan Relations Act are struck, fundamentally misrepresenting the vice president's statement of U.S. policy.
The Taiwan issue has been marked by ultra-sensitive semantics. On Taiwan independence, official U.S. policy is "no support" for Taiwan independence, which was in the English transcript. Yet "no support" becomes the semantically inconsequential but politically hugely important word "oppose" in the Chinese text. This constitutes yet another distortion.
• On the North Korean nuclear crisis. Mr. Cheney's remarks on North Korea, China's long-time ally and "Comrade plus Brother of lips-and-teeth closeness," got left on the cutting room floor. Passage after passage on North Korea in the vice president's speech are mercilessly cut, including the phrases "rogue states" and "past history of irresponsibility and deceit." Gone also are the long passages on the dangers of a nuclear arms race in Asia triggered by North Korea, and of nuclear proliferation to countries such as Pakistan and Libya.
On U.S. strategic goals in the Middle East. The vice president spent considerable time explaining to his Chinese audience the importance of building a democratic Iraq as a spearhead for peace and stability in the Middle East. He also welcomed China's participation in the war against terrorism. The most brilliant part of Mr. Cheney's speech is when he compares the prospect of a democratic Middle East with that of the Asia Pacific region. "We hear it said by skeptics," Mr. Cheney said, "that the greater Middle East is a hopeless cause for democratic values -- that they are doomed to live in misery and oppression. Those of you who have studied history will find that this dismissive attitude has a familiar ring. Not so long ago, the very same things were said about the people of Asia. Yet today the world looks to Asia as a showcase of the possibilities of human enterprise and creativity. Across this region we see entire nations raising themselves up from poverty in the space of little more than a generation, building strong, modern economies, and becoming stable, peaceful, and open societies of free peoples, governed under laws set by representatives chosen in free elections."
This passage is deleted entirely from the Chinese "full text" transcript.
• On partnership with the United States. China is praised for having taken an active role in the U.S.-led global fight against terror. Yet China is also using the war against terror as a pretext to oppress its own people, such as its Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet regions. Vice President Cheney sternly warned the Chinese in his speech, "As we deepen our cooperation, however, we must also be mindful of the rights of the innocent. The war on terror must never be used as an excuse for silencing legitimate dissent and expression of opinion." This passage disappears in the Chinese "full text" transcript.
* * *
For decades, the Chinese government has used its control of all media outlets to fan hysteria against the "hegemon," a nickname for the U.S. in Chinese politics. So much so that now the leadership fears being viewed by its own people as a corrupt collaborator with the evil hegemon with whom they continue to engage and trade. Thus the statement, "We (Beijing and Washington) are working together on these vital (economic) issues," has been cut. That way, Chinese officialdom maintains its pose of tough and principled "proletarian" warrior standing against the demonic capitalist hegemon and the unspeakable ulterior motives of its bourgeois ruling class.
Thus, most of Vice President Cheney's key statements about the most important issues of U.S.-China relations -- freedom and democracy, Taiwan, the North Korean nuclear crisis, war and peace in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and security and economic cooperation between the two countries -- were censored or changed in the official "full text" Chinese translation.
Censorship has always been a vital part of Chinese government policy. The survival of the Communist regime requires belief in the Party's infallibility. Pointing out anything negative about reality in China is viewed as a threat to the power of the Communist Party, a power that must be ruthlessly maintained by total control of the media. The Chinese treatment of this speech is no aberration. Sadly, censorship in China, a country so full of hope and promise, yet so ripe with misery and misfortune, remains as solid as the Great Wall.
Mr. Yu is associate professor of East Asia and Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy.